You're reading: Ukraine recovers Hr 3.7 billion ($234 million) blocked by Russia in Crimea

Ukraine reached an agreement to recover Hr 3.7 billion, or $234 million, of National Bank's cash kept in Russia-annexed Crimea, said President Petro Poroshenko on Jan. 16.

“Yesterday (Jan. 15), we returned Hr 3.7 billion to Ukraine that were stolen during the annexation of Crimea,” he said during the meeting with heads of parliamentary factions.

He also mentioned $2 billion and Hr 6 billion, or $380 million, that belonged to the officials of President Viktor Yanukovych-era government and were under arrest on the bank accounts in Ukraine. “Through various technologies, through illegitimate lower-level court decisions they try to hide those money,” Poroshenko told. “But no one should think that he can hide the money on the foreign accounts.”

The Ukrainian leader emphasized his government will keep working on recovering multibillion-dollar losses caused by various money laundering schemes used by Yanukovych’s circle.

Previously, National Bank Governor Valeriya Gontareva said she was negotiating with her Russian counterpart Elvira Nabiullina regarding Hr 3.7 billion of reserves that Ukraine’s central bank kept in Crimea.

In December, Ukrainian central bank first deputy head Oleksandr Pysaruk told the Kyiv Post the negotiations were still ongoing and the two sides were coming to a common denominator.

Commercial banks still have outstanding loans to Crimean residents of $1.8 billion that are difficult to get repaid. When Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the peninsula in April last year, a man approached him with a question on what he should do with his car loan issued by the Ukrainian bank.

“Use the car and don’t worry,” Putin answered.

Later, though, Russian central bank deputy head Mikhail Sukhov said Crimeans should pay off their debts to Ukraine’s banks “sooner or later.”

All the Ukrainian banks exited Crimea so far, as well as many other businesses. One can’t even buy Ukrainian newspapers on the peninsula whose occupation Putin sees as his major political accomplishment. Still, some Ukrainian businesses stayed, such as Epicenter, Silpo and Nova Liniya retail chains.

The debt relations between Ukraine and Russia remain complicated. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom asks for prepayments for the blue fuel supplies, while the price of deliveries is a subject of tense discussions that involve the European Union officials as a stakeholder.

Moreover, Russia considers calling for an early repayment of the $3-billion eurobond that the Yanukovych’s government issued in December of 2013, experiencing a cash deficit during the EuroMaidan Revolution.

The eurobond matures in December, but since Ukraine’s debt to gross domestic product ratio exceeded 60 percent, as Russia assumes, country should pay off the loan immediately, as the eurobond prospect implies.

However, Ukraine has an option of recognizing this debt as “odious” that would allow to write it off the government’s balance sheet.

Kyiv Post associate business editor Ivan Verstyuk can be reached at [email protected].